The Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, has disclosed that he was chased out when he visited the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi, in his palace.
The monarch revealed this in a trending video on TikTok on Sunday.
Speaking, the Ooni of Ife said, “When I visited Oluwo, he chased me out like a child, since that incident, I have always maintained myself going close to him. Now that you people (attendees) are imploring that I visit him again, what if he does what he likes to me?
“But I have to contain his excesses as an elder, although I am a young person sitting on the throne of the elders. Oluwo, I greet you.”
Although Ogunwunsi did not address any feud with the Oluwo of Iwo in the viral video—both being highly respected monarchs in Osun State—findings suggest that the Oluwo has been displeased with the Ooni’s association with traditionalists, whom he refers to as ‘idol worshippers.’
In a separate video, Akanbi, popularly known as Telu 1, was seen urging the people of Iwo to reject traditional practices, warning that anyone engaging in such rituals should confine them to their private homes.
“My work as a monarch is to stand for God and preach about him alone while challenging those worshipping things other than Him. I don’t do Ogun or any idol festival. Although, I have previously celebrated the Egungun festival with the worshippers but I will never do that again. Except that they don’t call it idol worshipping. I don’t support their activities, that’s why their dealings don’t thrive here.
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“And you cannot even perform sacrifices in Iwo here. Anyone who does that will eat it. Better still, litter your house with the sacrifices. Environmental sanitation has been exercised here to curb things like that. What anyone would need to be successful is to challenge the idols and their worshippers. That alone would make you a soldier of God,” he added.
In a Facebook post on Monday, Oluwo explained that Iwo was once governed by a traditional monarch, but this changed with the reign of Oba Memudu Ayinla Lamuye in the 1800s.
Oba Lamuye, who introduced Islam to the town, converted the entire Iwo community to the faith, marking a shift away from traditional rulership.
He wrote, ”Oba Ibirinade Abioye Adekanbi (Alawusa) brought Islam in 1600. He evacuated idols and converted a place of worshipping deities to the Oluwo Central Mosque. Precisely, he birthed the first Mosque in South Western Nigeria in 1600. Later in the late 1800, another Oluwo, Oba Memudu Ayinla Lamuye (pictured above) spread Islam and converted the whole Iwo people to Islam and that’s why in Iwo, every compound has a Mosque and there is no Iwo indigene that does not have a Muslim name including recent convertees when the missionaries came.
“Oba Ibirinade Adekanbi was also called Alawusa because he was hospitable. He accommodated Malians who people tagged Hausa then they came to settle in Iwo. Oluwo was turbaned. New Oluwo used to be enthroned with a beaded crown before 1600. After 1600, turbanning used to come first before wearing the beaded crown. Oba Muhammad Ayinla Lamuye spent 90 years on the throne. Exactly 100 years after, the reigning Oluwo, was enthroned to complete the good work of the past monarchs.”
In 2018, Akanbi claimed that Ogunwusi instructed his bodyguard to push him aside during a gathering of traditional rulers in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State.
According to Akanbi, the incident occurred at Hotel Presidential in the oil-rich city, just as the Ooni was called to the podium to deliver a vote of thanks.
“The bodyguard of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, in what seemed to be an errand message, pushed Oluwo at the public gathering of the first-class paramount rulers held at the Presidential Hotel, Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State last Tuesday,” Akanbi said in a statement.
“Dignitaries at the event were taken aback by what they considered as a desecration of the crown as the bodyguard of the Ooni pushed a first-class paramount ruler, Oluwo.
However, the Ooni, through a statement issued by Moses Olafare, the director of public affairs at his palace, denied the allegation.
Ogunwunsi dismissed the Oluwo’s claims as false, stating, “There was no altercation between the Oluwo and anyone at the event.”
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